Ignatius of Antioch

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St Ignatius of Antioch (also known as Theophorus) (born c. AD 35/50; reposed between 98-117[1]) was the third bishop and patriarch of Antioch, and may have been a disciple of John the Apostle. A bishop, pastor and zealous letter-writer, St Ignatius was eventually martyred in Rome. En route to his martyrdom in the colloseum, he wrote a series of letters which remain as some of the earliest post-apostolic Christian writings. St Ignatius is numbered among the apostolic fathers.

The feast day of St Ignatius is kept on 20 December in the Orthodox Church. Among the western churches, it is kept on 17 October by the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, and 1 February by the 1962 Roman calendar.

Contents

Early life and episcopacy

Besides his Latin name, Ignatius, he also called himself Theophorus (Gr. 'God Bearer'). Little is known of his early life, though tradition says he was one of the children Jesus took in His arms and blessed (cf. Mark 10.16).

St Ignatius was bishop of Antioch after St Peter and St Evodius, who died around AD 67 - though there is some disparity in the ancient records as to the precise succession. Eusebius records that St Ignatius succeeded Evodius[2]; whilst Theodoret notes that St Peter himself appointed Ignatius to the see of Antioch.[3]

Arrest and martyrdom

St Ignatius of Antioch, at his martyrdom in Rome.
St Ignatius of Antioch, at his martyrdom in Rome.

St Ignatius was arrested by the Roman authorities and transported to Rome for trial. He recounts a taxing journey:

"From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated."[4]

He was sentenced to die in the Colosseum. The Roman authorities had apparently hoped to make an example of him through his trial and execution, thus discouraging the spread of Christianity; but Ignatius instead used the occasion of his long journey to Rome as an opportunity to meet with and teach Christians along his route. The majority of his extant written output - a collection of letters to the churches in the region, and one to a fellow bishop (see below) - was written during the voyage.

After St Ignatius' martyrdom, his remains were carried back to Antioch by his companions with due honour, and were interred outside the city gates. Later they were translated by the emperor Theodosius II to the Tychaeum (temple of Tyche), which was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the saint. In AD 637 Ignatius' relics were again translated, this time to the Church of St Clement in Rome.

In his Chronicle, Eusebius gives the date of St Ignatius' death as 2124 years 'after Adam', which would equate to the 11th year of Trajan, i.e. AD 108.[5]

The letters of St Ignatius

Numerous letters attributed to St Ignatius exist, though amongst these, seven are considered to be authentic:

  • To the Ephesians
  • To the Magnesians
  • To the Trallians
  • To the Romans
  • To the Philadelphians
  • To the Smyrnaeans
  • To Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

By the 5th century, this collection had been enlarged to include a number of spurious letters. Additionally, the authentic original letters underwent the interpolation of additional content, created to posthumously enlist Ignatius as an unwitting witness in theological disputes of that age. The purported eye-witness account of his martyrdom is also thought to date to the same late period. As a result of this process of interpolation, nearly all of the above letters, considered authentic, exist today in longer and shorter recensions. Scholars are fairly unanimous in asserting the greater reliability and authenticity of the shorter recensions in each case.

A detailed but spurious account of Ignatius' arrest and travails toward martyrdom is contained in the Martyrium Ignatii, which is presented as being an eyewitness account for the church of Antioch and as if written by Ignatius' companions, Philo of Cilicia (a deacon at Tarsus) and Rheus Agathopus (a Syrian). Its most reliable manuscript is the 10th century Codex Colbertinus in Paris, in which the Martyrium closes the collection.

Theological Content of Ignatius' Writings

The letters of St Ignatius are an important testimony to the early articulation of Christian theology, since the number of extant writings from this period of Church history is small. They bear signs of being written in the course of necessity, without the schematic planning of later theological tracts: the letters are sometimes marked by run-on sentences and an unsystematic succession of thought. In this they are not unlike the epistles of St Paul, with which they are often compared.

Ignatius is one of the earliest writers to emphasize unity roung a single bishop in each city - a bishop assisted by both presbyters (priests, lit. 'elders') and deacons. He stressed the centrality of the Eucharist, calling it the 'medicine of immortality'.[6]. His ardent desire for martyrdom in the arena, which Ignatius expresses rather graphically in places, may seem quite odd to the modern reader and has not been uncontroversial amongst patristic scholars.

St Ignatius is also claimed as the first known Christian writer to argue for Christianity's replacement of the Sabbath with the Lord's Day:

"Be not seduced by strange doctrines nor by antiquated fables, which are profitless. For if even unto this day we live after the manner of Judaism, we avow that we have not received grace. [...] If then those who had walked in ancient practices attained unto newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbaths but fashioning their lives after the Lord's day, on which our life also arose through Him and through His death which some men deny [...] how shall we be able to live apart from Him? [...] It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practise Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity."[7]

St Ignatius is further responsible for the first known use of the Greek word katholikos (καθολικός, 'universal') to describe the Church. From his Letter to the Smyrnaeans:

"Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop. On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God. Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid."[8]

When St Ignatius wrote the above (c. AD 107), he was apparently able to call upon 'catholic' as an adjective already in use to describe the Church. This has led some scholars to conclude that the appellation "Catholic Church" with its ecclesial connotation may have been in use as early as the last quarter of the first century.

On the Eucharist, Ignatius wrote in his letter to the Smyrnaeans:

"Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. [...] They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes."[9]

St Ignatius' most famous quotation, however, comes from his letter to the Romans:

"I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God's sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beg you, do not do me an untimely kindness. Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God's wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ."[10]

References

The original base of this Patristics Wiki entry was gleaned from information provided at Wikipedia, then heavily modified by participants. Credit is due to those who contributed to the material in the Wikipedia entry on St Ignatius.

  1. ↑ On the dates of St Ignatius, see "Ignatius" in The Westminster Dictionary of Church History, ed. J. Brauer (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971); and D.H. Farmer, "Ignatius of Antioch" in The Oxford Dictionary of the Saints (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
  2. ↑ Historia Ecclesiastica, II.iii.22.
  3. ↑ Dial. Immutab., I, iv, 33a.
  4. ↑ To the Romans, 5.
  5. ↑ See the Latin translation of Jerome, on-line at Chronicle, p. 276.
  6. ↑ To the Ephesians, 20.2.
  7. ↑ To the Magnesians, 8.1, 9.1-2, 10.3.
  8. ↑ To the Smyrnaeans, 8.
  9. ↑ To the Smyrnaeans, 6.2–7.1.
  10. ↑ To the Romans.

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